Currently, the car is garaged. It has been wet and rainy, and I don\u2019t have the motor water proofed. I tested making it water proof by using some thick plastic underneath the motor area to keep it dry. I used the stuff that you can buy for under you chair when on carpet \u2014 Ace Hardware sells it by the foot. After driving home ~25 miles, I touched the motor, and it was excessively hot! Usually I can keep my hand on the motor; it is warm, but not excessively warm. I do have the motor\u2019s over temp circuit wired to a light on the dashboard, but it didn\u2019t kick on, and I have heard that it will only kick on after the motor has reached too hot of a temperature and caused damage.<\/p>\n
So, for me to properly water encase the motor area, I will need some other solution. Maybe some slotted venting or something similar to let it still have airflow.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also considering trying to have it automatically turn on a fan after it reaches a certain temperature. I asked about this on the DIY EV forums: Temperature sensor for a Warp9 to turn on fans<\/a>. EVSource.com has a nice motor cooling kit<\/a> that I was already checking out, and I might end up getting it or fabricating something myself in a similar fashion. Jeffrey pointed me to the following interesting parts that might let me do what I want:<\/p>\n 34-42C NO Temperature Switch<\/a><\/p>\n 40A Automotive Relay<\/a> Ideally, I want to reuse the blower I have for my heater, and have it swap the exit vent to the exterior of the car when I don\u2019t want the heater on. That would allow me to pre-heat the heater with the motor\u2019s heat, and allow the ceramic heater to work less hard.<\/p>\n The blower I got in the CanEV kit is a SPAL 008-A100-93D 12v, multi-speed squirrel cage. I found the spec here:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.spal.de\/_pdfs\/en\/008-A100-93D.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n It looks like it puts out 153 CFM, which is higher than the Jabsco blower sold by EVSource (at 105 CFM) but lower than their Dayton. I\u2019m not too happy with the SPAL blower, as it is a bit noisy, but then again, it is advertised as being \u201clow noise\u201d. I don\u2019t mind the noise as long as I\u2019m driving, but at low speeds I want the car to be dead silent. A few other blowers I found:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.grainger.com\/Grainger\/DAYTON-DC-Blower-2C646<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.surpluscenter.com\/item.asp?item=16-930&catname=electric<\/a><\/p>\n It would be ideal if I could use my existing blower to go through the motor and then into my heating system. I want a way for it to automatically come on when the temperature reaches a certain point, and automatically go off when it passes past another point. I can do this with a temperature switch that Jeffrey pointed out, or something like this that another EV\u2019er named Brian did on his car: http:\/\/s2kev.blogspot.com\/2010\/09\/motor-cooling.html<\/a>. Brian added a temperature sensor to turn on\/off some simple fans. His details on his sensor are here: http:\/\/s2kev.blogspot.com\/2008\/08\/motor-temperature-sensor.html<\/a> \u2014 awesome job! I wish I knew more about micro-controllers so I could do something like this. Eventually I\u2019ll learn\u2026<\/p>\n
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